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What’s On Thursday

8 P.M. (BET) MANDELA: FREEDOM’S FATHER This “BET News Special” celebrates the 95th birthday of Nelson Mandela, above, chronicling his life through film clips and interviews. In Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus” (2009), at 9, Morgan Freeman stars as Mandela, newly elected as South Africa’s first black president. Matt Damon is Francois Pienaar, the captain of the Springbok rugby team, a source of Afrikaner pride despised by most blacks — and the vehicle, Mandela thinks, for bringing the country’s races together. A. O. Scott, reviewing this film in The New York Times, wrote that Mr. Freeman played Mandela — a role that earned him an Oscar nomination for best actor — “with gravity, grace and a crucial spark of mischief,” and that Mr. Damon, nominated for best supporting actor, matches him “with crisp, disciplined understatement (and utter mastery of a devilishly tricky accent).” He added: “ ‘Invictus’ has implications beyond its immediate time and place that are hard to miss. It’s an exciting sports movie, an inspiring tale of prejudice overcome and, above all, a fascinating study of political leadership.”

8 P.M. (NUVOtv) JENNIFER LOPEZ: HER LIFE, HER JOURNEY Ms. Lopez, who was an executive producer for this show, talks about her personal life and career. “A Step Away,” at 9, follows eight of her backup dancers on tour. And in “House of Joy,” a new series at 10, the Grammy-winning producer Rodney Jerkins, who has worked with Ms. Lopez, Lady Gaga and Rihanna, tries to reignite the career of his wife, Joy Enriquez, a Mexican-American pop singer.

9 P.M. (13) NDIPHILELA UKUCULA: I LIVE TO SING The opera school at the University of Cape Town in South Africa opened its doors to classical singers from the nation’s black townships after the end of apartheid. In this documentary, the filmmaker Julie Cohen follows three rising stars as they prepare Offenbach’s “Tales of Hoffman”; travel to Cooperstown, N.Y., for summer internships at the Glimmerglass Festival; and visit Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years. The film also features a performance by the soprano Pretty Yende, a recent graduate of the school who made her Met debut in January.

9 P.M. (Lifetime) PROJECT RUNWAY A 12th round begins with 15 new designers and a mystery contestant from a past season selected by viewers. The season also features seven fans chosen through video submissions for fashion makeovers — and more Tim Gunn, who will join Heidi Klum, Nina Garcia and Zac Posen to watch the runway show, answer questions about what went on in the workroom and give them the chance to examine the workmanship of each design. In a series first, Mr. Gunn will rescue from elimination one designer he says deserves a second chance. “Road to the Runway Season 12” leads in at 8.

10 P.M. (Sundance) DISTRICT 9 (2009) After a spacecraft stalls over Johannesburg, its inhabitants are placed in a refugee camp. Despite evidence that the aliens are from an advanced civilization, they are treated with contempt and subjected to corporate abuse overseen by an executive played by Sharlto Copley (above far left, with Mandla Gaduka, center, and Kenneth Nkosi). “Not that the metaphorical resonances of ‘District 9’ aren’t rich and thought provoking,” A. O. Scott said in The Times about this “smart, swift” film. “But the filmmakers don’t draw them out with a heavy, didactic hand. Instead, in the best B-movie tradition, they embed their ideas in an ingenious, propulsive and suspenseful genre entertainment, one that respects your intelligence even as it makes your eyes pop (and, once in a while, your stomach turn).”

1 A.M. (13) ELSA’S LEGACY: THE BORN FREE STORY In 1960, Joy Adamson published “Born Free,” the story of an orphaned lion cub in Kenya named Elsa and her eventual release back into the wild after being taught by Ms. Adamson and her husband, George, to survive on her own. The book sold millions of copies and in 1966 was made into an Academy Award-winning film — in the process changing public perceptions by treating animals as individuals. The reality behind the movie was far less romantic. This “Nature” special uses George Adamson’s journal entries, home movies and conversations with several of the couple’s confidants to examine their roles as pioneering conservationists and their controversial views about wildlife. KATHRYN SHATTUCK